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I 3 Sheets-Sheet', 1. (Mmm W. Pi ELLIOTT'avLA. FARRAR GATE.

10.895888 Patented Jan. 8, 1889.

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W. P. ELLIOTT 8v A. F'ARRAR'.

GATE.

No. 395,885. Patented Jan. a, 1889..

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N0. 395,885. K Y Patented Jan. 8, 1889.

(No Model.)

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IVILLIAM l). ELLIOTT AND ARTHUR FARRAR, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

GATE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No, 395,885, dated January 8, 1889.

Application tiled January 31, 1887. Serial No. 225,957. (No model.)

To ZZ whom it' 71mg/ con/cern:

Be it known that we, VILLIAM P. ELLIOTT and ARTHUR FARRAR, citizens of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Gates; and we hereby declare the following' to he a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

Our invention relates particularly to improvements in ythe class of railway-crossing gates in which hars provided upon posts to swing verticall)v are actuated in both directionsthat is, to he raised and lowered--hy fluid-pressure.

The mechanism involved in gates of the class referred to comprises, generally stated, a single post carrying a swinging gate-har, with which to form the barrier, or two posts in line with each other, both carrying such gaie-bars, with which to form the barrier by lowering them toward each other from their normally-raised positions; and it further comprises a fluid-pump controllahly communicating with fluid-pressure inechanism-piston and cylinder or collapsible receiver mechanism-in or at each gate-post and connected with the gatediar to raise and lower the same by liuid-in'essure exerted from the pump. Ordinaril)v these gates, when the barrier is formed h v two swinging hars, have the latter connected together to cause the rise or descent of one to raise orlower with .it the other, the connection heing either in the form of chains or cables, usuallyY umlergrouml, or airconduits; and as it Vis common to provide a gate, most usually like that last mentionedthat is, having the swinging hars-on each side of a railroad-crossing, and sometimes at opposite sides of each track at the crossing, all the posts having the fluid-pressure mechanism are caused io communicate with the one pump to he operated shnultaneously.

IVe illustrate and describe our improvements hy showin and explaining' their application to a gate involving a single post and swinging gate-lair, since their purposes may he thus as clearly set forth as h v illustrating' and descrihiiig them in connection with the more complicatetl forms of gates, to show which, however, would require uiinecessarily elaborate drawings and entail consequent prolixity in the description.

Part of our present improvements are designed to be used particularly upon the construction of gate, or gate involving the means of operation, shown and described in Letters Patent of the United States, No. 380,447, granted to Mortimer B. Mills on the 3d day of April, 1888. In the gate here referred to each cylinder is provided with an external rect-angular frame, bywhich its piston-rod is connected with the pulleyT or sections thereof on the gate-bar axis and which forms a guide for the piston-rod; and each cylinder is open at the end opposite that at which the airpressure is introduced to avoid the formation and consequent resistance of an air-cushion to the movement of the piston in one direction hy such air-pressure or of a vacuum when the piston is moved in the opposite direction.

The objects of our present improvements are to avoid the use of the rectangular frame referred to, and thereby save the space (some eighteen inches) provided in the post to permit it to work therein with the movement of the piston-rod, with which it is connected, and to provide the fluid-pressure mechanism for each post with means whereby the airthe preferred form of iiuid-shall not-be allowed to escape therefrom freely by the force of the air-pressure used to actuate the har or bars, but shall he utilized to produce a controllable resistance to the movement of the piston portion of the mechanism, and thereby afford a. form of governor for producing uniform motion of the gate-har or of all the gatebars, if there he more than one, actuated from the same pump. This control over the movements of the gate-hars is partie ularly desirable where several are operated from the same pump, since, owing to possible mechanical defects in the piston mechanism, and more especially to the difference in the degrees of friction in the parts of the devices immediately connected with the gate-bars, to possible differences in the weights of the gate-bars, and to the eifect of wind upon the motion of the same, the latter are liable to lack the desired uniformity of action.

In the drawings, Figure l is a partly sectional and broken diagrammatic view of a pneumatic railroad-gate provided with our improvements; Fig. 2, a longitudinal section of a detail; Fig. 3, a cross-section of the same;

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the controlling mechanism already described, or, like the latter, alone. In suitable posit-ion within each pipe s and s (that is, where access to them for purposes of regulation, as hereinafter described, may be had most con`veniently,) we provide a checkvalvc device, K, preferably of the construction shown iullig's. 2 and 3, and comprising a short tube'or shell, 7i., provided internally with two intcrcommunicating chambers, i' and L, the communication of which is obstructed by means of a check-valve, 71 on a stem, 71.. The stem 7i extends into a recess in athreaded plug, g, screwed into a flanged opening in the side of the short tube 7s, whereby the valve 71., though confined, may have free play with relation to its seat in the communication between the two chambers ri and fi. A regulating'-screw, f, extends throug'h the bottom of the shell or short tube k against the under side of the valve nwhereby turning the screw f raises or lowers the valve with relation to its seat. The shells 7s are adjusted in the pipes s and s with the chambers i nearest the pump, whereby the pressure from the latter for acii'iating' the bar Il may pass into a cylinder, l) or D', depending' upon which way the handle ot' the three-way cock s2 is turned, (the arrangement of the latter to prevent mistake being' such that when its handle is in the vertical position shown the pipe or passage leading from the pump to the cylinder which serves in raising' the gatebar is open,) without obstruction from the valve i, while the contents of such cylinder can only return to escape at the three-way cock when the piston of the other cylinder is actuated through the opening between the chambers i' and i', the size of which is regulated by raising' and suplgiorting the valve by the screw f. The serewf serves lo adjust and support the valve h in a position to regulate the opening tor the return or waste air to any size desired to control the rapidity ol' escape of the return or waste air, and thus attords a controllable resistance to the movement of the gate-btu'. l

The same result maybe attained by employing' the forni of valve K shown in Figs. 4 and 5, and comprising' a short tube or shell, 7.', to be adjusted like the shells already described, and having' an internal disk, e, provided with a central oritice, e', covered on the side farthest from the air-pump by a hinged check-valve, 71, which is perforated at its eenter, as shown at d, the size ot' the opening (l beingI regulated by means ol a pivotal tinger,

be in the disk e lo one side ot the hinged cheek-valve 7i, as shown in liig. l, instead of in the valve itself, when, of course, the pivotal eonlrolling'-ting-erf is placed according'ly.

'lhe mode ot' operation ot' thet'orm ot' valve last described is substantially the same as that ol Ihe valve device shown Vin Figs. 2 and 5; bul we prefer lo use 'the latter, owing to Il' desired however the oienineA d may 7 7 r) the readiness of accessibility to its regulating feature f, it being' necessary to regulate the other to detach it from the pipe s or s', into which it is adj usted.

What we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. In a gate having' a vertically-swingingl bar on a post, and a cylinder having its piston connected with the bar on one side of the axis thereof, to actuate the same by duid-pressure introduced against one side of the piston, the combination, with the cylinder, of a cap, F, having a hollow extension, G, forming a guide for the piston-rod, a valved air-inlet, 0, and a controllable discharge-outlet, n, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. In a gate having a ve1'tically-swinging' gate-bar on a post, and a cylinder having its piston connected with the bar on one side of theaxis thereof, to actuate the same by Huidpressure introduced against one side of the piston, the combination, wi th the cylinder and g'ate-bar, of a cap, F, having` a hollow eXtension, G, forming a guide for the piston-rod, a cross-head, H, ou the piston-rod, and a pulleysection on the axis of the gate-bar, recessed on its periphery and connected on opposite sides of its recess with the cross-head H, substantia-lly as and for the purpose set forth.

3. In a g'ate having' a vertically-swinging baron a post, and a cylinder having its piston connected with the bar on one side of the axis thereof, to actua-te the same by fluidpressure introduced against one side of the piston, the combination, with the cylinder on the opposite side of the piston, of a valved air-inlet, 0, and a controllable discharge-outlet, n, and, on the side of the piston against which the Apressure is introduced, of an adinstable valve device, K, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

L In a gate having a vertically-swinging baron a post and actuated by fluid-pressure introduced against a piston in a cylinder and connected with the gate-imi', means for connecting' the piston with the gate-bar, comprising' a recessed pulley or lnilley-seetion on the gate-bar axis and a cross-head, II, on. the piston-rod, connected near opposite ends with the recessed pulley or pulley-section, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

5. In a gate having' a vertically-swing'ing bar on a post and actuated by fluid-pressure introduced against a piston in a cylinder, and connected with the gatebar, the combination, with the gate-bar and cylinder, ot' a cap, F, having' a g'uide-extensmi, G, for the piston-rod, a cross-head, II, on the piston-rod, and a recessed pulley or puHey-section ou the gate-bar axis, coni'iected with the cross-head H near its opposite ends, substanl iall y as and for the purpose set. forth.

lVILLIAM P. ELLIOTT ARTHUR FARRAR. In presence of- FRANK L. DoUcLAs, J, W. DYRENFORTH,

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